The University of Idaho has a reputation for being a party school. Regardless, Vandals know how to be safe when it comes to choosing to drink alcohol. Studies done at UI say a lot more students than you think choose to not drink alcohol at all. It’s easy to see how serious UI is about being safe when choosing to drink.
According to the National College Health Assessment, students at UI are typically responsible drinkers. Binge drinking is classified as having four or more standard drinks in a night for females and five standard drinks for males.
At UI, students are reporting more responsible rates of alcohol consumption. On average, female students report having three drinks per social event and male students report having four drinks per social event. This is an average of 3.5 drinks per social event/party, which is on the more responsible end of the spectrum.
To further dive into alcohol safety we first need to talk about unsafe drinking habits. Some things may include having someone else pour your drink, eye balling mixed drinks, having a community juice mix, switching drinks and not planning ahead. All are problems but the biggest is simply not planning ahead.
Now that we have identified what unsafe drinking habits, let’s dive into what Vandals are doing effectively to making choosing to drink safe. When asked students can give a long list of things that they do to promote safer drinking.
Here are some strategies to increase safety and responsibility when drinking:
• Stick to one type of alcohol for the whole night
• Pour drinks yourself
• Get an exact number of drinks and when those are finished, stop drinking
• Only take out a certain amount of money when choosing to go out
• Drink in groups so you can keep an eye on your friends.
• More safe drinking strategies can be found on the Vandal Health Education website at www.uidaho.edu/AOD.
It is important to keep in mind these safe drinking strategies. If you would like more information, do not hesitate to reach out to Vandal Health about an Alcohol 101 presentation for yourself and your friends, or come attend our High Risk Drinking Health Hut from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 21 in the Idaho Student Union Building.
Everyone at UI is part of the Vandal Family. If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol visit uidaho.edu/IGotYourBack for great resources around campus. Stay safe out there, Vandals!